JPH09312085A - Device and method for recording/reproducing information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify confirmation of the condition at the changeover reproduction of a cancellation or index information caused in association with the editing change by providing the index information storing area in a storage means when the editing is operated in accordance with the index information in a disk. SOLUTION: The storage means 9, which is provided with the index information storing area 9A for storing the index information in the recording medium 1 in editing the information and editing storage areas 9B, 9C,...9N capable of copying the index information data stored in the area 9A, is furnished in the device. By a control means 15, the transfer and selection of the stored data are executed between the storage area 9A and areas 9B-9N or between the storage areas 9B-9N each other, then the control is made so as not erased till the index information of the recording medium 1 is rewritten after the editing of the index information data stored in the storage area 9A is completed. Then, the editing is executed in accordance with the data of the recording area 9A or one of the storage areas 9B-9N.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus and an information recording / reproducing method for a magneto-optical disk or the like capable of recording information, and in particular, it stores index information of a disk or the like in a storage means, The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus and an information recording / reproducing method for editing / reproducing / recording reproduction information based on the table-of-contents information stored in.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a CD-recording / reproducing disk
R, MO, MD, etc. are known. Magneto-optical discs such as MO and MD are widely used as rewritable discs for recording music information and computer data.
In particular, MDs and the like have a format structure for facilitating the editing of recorded information such as music songs. That is, UTOC
There is a table of contents information area called (User Table of Contents), which is recorded separately from the area for recording reproduction information such as audio.

The table of contents information includes a lead-in area at the innermost circumference of the MD, a UTOC area, and a user recording area for recording a reproduction signal such as a music signal following the UTOC area. Has reached. An address is provided for each song number in the user recording area, and an address of a track recorded for each song in the user recording area is recorded as table-of-contents information data in the UTOC area. In this UTOC area, in addition to the address, year and date information, disc name,
Additional information such as track name can be recorded.

Therefore, based on the address recorded in the UTOC area as described above, the input operation of the character information or the track editing operation can be performed by rewriting the information in the UTOC area without changing the information recorded in the user area. It can be done easily. In the conventional recording / reproducing apparatus such as MD, the track editing work generally differs depending on the model, but the erasing,
It is designed so that division, connection, movement, etc. can be performed relatively freely.

That is, in the erasing process, the designated track or all the tracks can be erased, and the number of the remaining track is automatically changed. In addition, the division processing can also divide the track into two from a designated location. In this case, the track number is updated at the division point. Further, in the combining process, two consecutive tracks can be combined into one track.
One track number is automatically updated to one track number. Furthermore, in the moving process, the designated track is moved to change the order of the songs.

The above-described editing operation is performed on the storage means such as a semiconductor memory built in the information recording / reproducing apparatus, and the table of contents information of the disc is stored in the storage means.

Further, based on the table-of-contents information recorded on the disc and the reproduction information such as the audio data recorded in the user recording area, the table-of-contents information such as the UTOC at the time of editing is stored in the storage area of the storage means when the editing operation is performed JP-A-6-243657 discloses an information recording / reproducing apparatus which is capable of reproducing a disc by providing a plurality of table-of-contents information storage areas capable of storing the history of the contents and selecting the table-of-contents information stored in these table-of-contents information storage areas. Is disclosed in.

[0008]

According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-243657, which has been described as the above-mentioned conventional structure, the index information is read from the recording medium, which is a disk, at each recording / editing operation, and the index information is stored in the storage means. The annoyance of rewriting can be eliminated. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of first and second storage areas provided in the storage means stores a history of edits such as TOC for each edit, and a voice storage area serving as a user area is provided. It is made like.

Therefore, the edited data can be obtained from the history data stored in the plurality of first and second storage areas in the storage means without reading the TOC from the recording medium for each edition even when the edition is performed a plurality of times. Since the data can be read out from the storage means and reproduced, it is possible to save a lot of time for editing a plurality of times.

Further, even when the recorded / edited contents are to be canceled after the recording / editing operation is performed, the contents stored in the first and second storage areas of the storage means before the recording / editing are remembered. It was designed so that the content can be edited while checking the content in the recording medium after recording and editing.

However, since the table-of-contents information stored in the plurality of first and second storage areas of the above-mentioned storage means is not the original (before editing) table-of-contents information recorded on the recording medium, it is edited. After the end, there is a problem that the switching reproduction cannot be performed in the storage means as compared with the original.

Therefore, when it is desired to cancel the contents stored in the plurality of first and second storage areas, the table-of-contents information must be read from the original recording medium, and the cancel editing can be performed in the storage means before the editing is completed. There was no problem.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording / reproducing apparatus and an information recording / reproducing method which solve the above problems, and the problem thereof is to perform an editing operation based on the table of contents information recorded on a disc. In this case, the original table of contents information storage area that does not reach the editing operation is provided in the storage means, and it is possible to confirm the playback status after editing when canceling due to editing changes after the editing operation is completed or when switching to the index information before editing. There is something that can be easily done in the storage means.

Another object of the present invention is to store a plurality of editing operations in a plurality of editing storage areas based on original table of contents information that remains unchanged until the editing is completed. There is provided an information recording / reproducing apparatus and an information recording / reproducing method for storing and editing / editing the edited data.

[0015]

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, an information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention reads the table of contents information of a recording medium 1 on which reproduction information and table of contents information are recorded. In the information recording / reproducing apparatus configured to control reproduction / recording / editing of information based on the table-of-contents information stored in the storage means 9, the table-of-contents information recorded on the recording medium 1 at the time of editing the information. Which stores the table of contents information storage area 9A and at least one of the editing storage areas 9B, 9C which can copy the table of contents information data stored in the table of contents information storage area 9A.
.. Stored data is exchanged and selected between the storage means 9 having 9N and the table-of-contents information storage area 9A and the editing storage areas 9B ... 9N, or between a plurality of editing storage areas 9B. The table of contents information storage area 9A of the storage means 9 or at least the table of contents information storage area 9A of the storage means 9 is provided with at least the control means 15 that controls the table of contents information stored in the information storage area 9A until the table of contents information of the recording medium 1 is rewritten. The editing is performed based on the data in one editing storage area 9B ... 9N.

The second information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention comprises at least one edit storage area 9B-9N of the storage means 9.
All or part of the edited table-of-contents information stored in the table and all of the table-of-contents information stored in the table-of-contents information storage area 9A are exchanged with each other, and recording to the storage 9 and selection / reproduction from the storage 9 are performed. It is characterized in that it is done.

The third information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention stores the editing data stored in the plurality of editing storage areas 9B to 9N of the storage means 9 and the common data at the time of editing the table of contents information stored in the table of contents information storage area 9A. It is characterized in that they can be mutually copied.

In a fourth information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention, at least one edit storage area 9B-9N of the storage means 9 is provided.
Is characterized by recording a timing signal for connection during editing.

The information recording / reproducing method of the present invention reads out the table of contents information of the recording medium on which the reproduction information and the table of contents information are recorded, and controls the reproduction / recording / editing of the information based on the table of contents information stored in the storage means 9. In the information recording / reproducing method adapted to perform the above, the table-of-contents information stored in the storage means 9 is copied into at least two or more editing storage areas, and different table-of-contents information data which is edited is recorded in parallel. It is characterized by selecting and reproducing.

In the second information recording / reproducing method of the present invention, the index information of the storage means 9 in which the index information recorded on the recording medium 1 is stored and at least one edit storage area 9B to.
It is characterized in that the editing is canceled or the switching operation before the editing is performed based on the editing data stored in 9N.

According to the information recording / reproducing apparatus and the information recording / reproducing method of the present invention, since the table-of-contents information storage area in which the direct editing operation is not performed during the editing operation is provided, the editing in which a plurality of different editing is performed is performed. The original table of contents information does not have to be read from the disc of the recording medium during the work, and the editing time can be shortened.

Therefore, according to the present invention, even if the editing operation is canceled during the editing operation, it is not necessary to read out the original table-of-contents information from the disk of the recording medium, and the editing operation is to return to the state before the editing. Even if the contents information is stored in the contents information storage area of the storage means, quick editing is possible.

Further, a series of editing results of the table-of-contents information is stored in a plurality of editing storage areas and a table-of-contents information storage area so that the table-of-contents information data can be exchanged with each other, and the editing results can be switched. It can be confirmed in the storage means.

[0024]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An MD recorder for recording / reproducing / editing using a magneto-optical disk such as an MD as a recording medium of an information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

An MD recorder which is an embodiment of the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 is a user recording in which analog information such as a voice signal or a tone signal is digitized on a recording medium 1 of a magneto-optical MD. It is recorded in the area and U
In the TOC area, table of contents information such as an address for each song recorded in the user recording area is recorded.

The operation and structure during reproduction will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The optical pickup 2 arranged below the MD 1 is an MD.
1 is irradiated with laser light from the lower side, and the RF signal recorded in MD1 is picked up by the reflected light from MD1,
It is supplied to the F amplifier 3. The RF signal is amplified by the RF amplifier 3 and EFM / ACIRC (Eight to Fourteen Modula)
tion / Advanced Cross Interleave Read-Solomon Code)
It is supplied to the encoder / decoder 7.

The EFM / ACIRC encoder / decoder 7 exchanges data with a control means (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 15 equipped with a microcomputer for performing subcode processing and the like via a bus to demodulate an RF signal. The digitized information is subjected to error correction and the like and transferred to the semiconductor memory control circuit 8.

The RF amplifier 3 extracts servo signals such as a focus error signal and a tracking error signal from the RF signal and supplies them to the servo circuit 4. The servo circuit 4 supplies servo signals to the slide motor and the semiconductor laser of the optical pickup 2 to perform tracking servo, focus servo, ON / OFF control of the semiconductor laser, and each motor 5 such as a spindle motor for driving the MD 1.
To CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) control. In addition, the EFM / ACIRC encoder / decoder 7 from the RF amplifier 3 through the address decoder 6 has an address superimposed on a CLV sine wave signal in which a guide groove preformed in the MD 1 is meandered by a slight amount. Decode and supply information.

The semiconductor memory controller circuit 8 is an EFM
/ ACIRC Encoder / decoder 7 controls the writing and reading operations according to the instruction of CPU 15 so as to be stored in a storage means for temporarily storing the digital information, that is, a shock proof memory (hereinafter referred to as a semiconductor memory) 9. In addition, the digital information from the semiconductor memory 9 is converted to ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding).
It supplies the audio compression / expansion encoder / decoder 10 and exchanges control information with the CPU 15 via a bus.

The semiconductor memory 9 is a DRAM (Dynamic Random Accumulator) of about 4 Mbits (4194304 bits, 524288 bytes).
ess Memory) is used. As shown in one embodiment of the memory map of the storage means in FIG. 3, the table of contents information storage area 9A, the first editing storage area 9B, the second editing storage area 9C ... The storage area 9N and the voice storage area 9S0 that constitutes the user storage area are included.

In the table-of-contents information storage area 9A on the semiconductor memory 9 described above, the original (first) recorded on the MD1 is recorded.
The original table-of-contents information is retained until the table-of-contents information is transferred and stored, the editing operation is completed, and the edited table-of-contents information is recorded again in the UTOC area of MD1. After recording the edited table of contents information in the UTOC area of MD1,
The edited table of contents information data reproduced from the MD 1 is stored in the table of contents information storage area 9A, and the original table of contents information is updated.

Further, the first to nth edit storage areas 9B-
9N stores edit content data for each one edit work (one edit pattern), and the first edit storage area 9B
After the editing pattern work in
When performing the editing pattern work, the edit target is switched to the second editing storage area 9C by the operation key, and the table-of-contents information data having the content corresponding to the second editing pattern is stored in the second editing storage area 9C. It is made like.

The semiconductor memory 9 also has a shock-proof function for preventing interruption of recording / reproduction of digital information due to vibration disturbance, a transfer rate of output information from the EFM / ACIRC encoder / decoder 7, ATRAC and voice compression / expansion. The encoder / decoder 10 is also configured to absorb a difference in transfer rate of digital information input thereto.

The ATRAC audio compression / expansion encoder / decoder 10 divides digital information into a maximum time frame of 1.6 ms, separates it into a plurality of frequencies by a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) operation, and transforms it into a frequency axis. The digital information from the semiconductor memory control circuit 8 compressed to about 1/5 of the digital information is expanded by performing the thinning using the auditory characteristics of the D / A converter (digital-
The analog conversion circuit 11 is supplied to the output terminal (OUTPUT) as an analog audio signal. The output terminal is connected to a speaker or the like to emit an audio signal.

The CPU 15 and the ATRAC audio compression / expansion encoder / decoder 10 exchange control data via a bus. The operation unit 17 constitutes an input device having various key groups for recording / reproducing / editing to the CPU 15, and in the present example, at least the editing content confirmation key 1 is used as an editing operation means.
7a, edit key (EDIT) key 17b for editing operation,
It has an up or down key 17c, a copy key 17d, an edit cancel key 17e and the like. In addition, a key group of recording / reproducing operation means and various selection means (not shown) is arranged. A display means 16 such as a liquid crystal display device is connected to the CPU 15 to display various data.

Next, the recording operation and structure of the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention will be described. A / D converter (analog-
An input terminal (INPUT) of the digital conversion circuit 12 is connected to an input unit such as a microphone and is supplied with an analog signal such as an audio signal. This analog signal is converted into digital information by the A / D converter 12 and supplied to the ATRAC audio compression / expansion encoder / decoder 10.
The ATRAC audio compression / expansion encoder / decoder 10 converts the digital information from the A / D converter 12 to about 1/5.
And is supplied to the semiconductor memory control circuit 8. The semiconductor memory control circuit 8 outputs the compressed digital information to the audio storage area 9SO of the semiconductor memory 9.
In the EFM / ACIRC encoder / decoder 7 and absorbs the difference in transfer rate of the digital information.

The EFM / ACIRC encoder / decoder 7 modulates the digital information output from the semiconductor memory control circuit 8 and converts it into an RF signal, which is supplied to the head coil drive circuit 13, which in turn outputs the RF signal. Is supplied to the recording magnetic head 14. The magnetic head 14 records the RF signal in the user recording area of the MD 1 in cooperation with the optical pickup 2 and also records various index information such as addresses in the UTOC area.

When the MD 1 is mounted on the MD recorder, the optical pickup 2 reads out the TOC (table of contents information) from the UTOC area of the MD 1 as an RF signal during reproduction, amplifies it with the RF amplifier 3, and demodulates it with the EFM / ACIRC encoder / decoder 7. Then, the data is stored in the TOC storage area 9A of the semiconductor memory 9 via the semiconductor memory control circuit 8.

At the time of reproduction, the semiconductor memory control circuit 8 reads out the table-of-contents information from the TOC storage area 9A of the semiconductor memory 9 and transfers it to the CPU 15 based on the reproduction command from the operation unit 17 of the input device inputted to the CPU 15. The CPU 15 servos the servo circuit 4 based on the table of contents information to move the optical pickup 2 to a predetermined reproduction position.

In the above-mentioned configuration, the editing operation of this example will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

Now, when an edit command is issued from the operation unit 17 which is an input device and the editor key 17b of FIG. 1 is operated,
The CPU 15 determines whether or not the editor key 17b is operated as shown in the first step S1 of FIG. “NO”
If so, the process returns to the beginning of the first step S1, but "YE
If S ″, the process proceeds to the second step S2.

In the second step S2, the CPU 15 causes the MD1
Contents information such as TOC recorded in the UTOC area of, and is read via the semiconductor memory control circuit 8.
The table of contents information of MD1 is recorded in all the first to nth edit storage areas 9B to 9N of the semiconductor memory 9 shown in FIG.

In the next third step S3, the first to nth edit storage areas shown in FIG. 3 are selected and the edit object is set. The edit target is initially set in the first edit storage area 9B, and when setting in another edit storage area, the setting operation is performed after the selection operation is performed from the operation unit 17.

Next, as shown in the fourth step S4, a series of editing work (one editing pattern) in the selected editing storage area is stored in the first editing storage area 9B in the second step S2. Is based on. That is, when the editing function is selected and executed, the table-of-contents information in the editing storage area selected in the fifth step S5 is changed and stored according to the editing operation.

In the next sixth step S6, if "YES" to continue the editing operation, the process returns to the beginning of the fourth step S4 via (A), and the next editing operation is performed in the same editing storage area. . Ends the editing operation in the current edit storage area "N
If "O", the process proceeds to the seventh step S7.

In the seventh step S7, it is checked whether or not the editing area has been switched. This edit area switching operation is the eighth in the case of "YES" when the edit area is switched from the current edit storage area to another edit storage area 9C by the UP or DOWN key 17c in the operation unit 17 of the input device. Step S8
Then, for example, the next second edit storage area 9C is selected.

In the next ninth step S9, it is determined whether or not the table-of-contents information of another editing area is to be copied. That is, the first
When the editing operation is continuously performed using the table of contents information obtained by changing the original table of contents information stored in the editing storage area 9B of the copy key 17d in the tenth step S10.
By operating, the changed table-of-contents information stored in the first edit storage area 9B is directly copied to the currently selected edit storage area. When it is unnecessary to copy the table-of-contents information of another editing area in the ninth step S9, and
After the end of step S10, the fourth step S4 is performed through (A).
Returning to the head, the fourth step S4 to the seventh step S7
Each processing flow of is repeated.

That is, if there are n editing patterns, the editing work is repeated n times, and the changed n pieces of table-of-contents information are independently added to the n-th editing storage area 9N shown in FIG. Through are stored in the nth edit storage areas 9B to 9N.

In this way, if the editing work is performed several times in each editing storage area and the process goes to the seventh step S7 and the editing area is not switched to "NO", the eleventh step S1.
In 1, it is determined whether or not to confirm the edited contents. If "NO", which does not require confirmation, the process proceeds to the fifteenth step S15, and it is determined whether or not the edited content is recorded.

If the confirmation is "YES" in the eleventh step S11, the first to nth edit storage areas to be confirmed are selected in the twelfth step S12. For example, the first
When the editing storage area 9B is selected, the editing content confirmation key 17a of the operation unit 17 or the reproduction key (not shown) is operated in the thirteenth step S13 to select the first selected area.
The acoustic signal is reproduced in accordance with the table-of-contents information stored in the editing storage area 9B.

In the fourteenth step S14, it is judged whether or not the edited contents of the other, for example, the second to nth edited storage areas are confirmed. If "YES", the process is returned to the twelfth step S12, An edit area to be confirmed is selected from the second to nth edit storage areas. Proceeding to the 13th step S13, the edit content confirmation key 17a or the reproduction key is operated again, and the acoustic signal is reproduced in accordance with the index information of the edit storage area selected in S12. Such a twelfth step S
If the 12th to 14th steps S14 are repeated, for example, n
When the reproduction up to the n-th edit storage area 9N is completed after being repeated, the edit results of all the edit storage areas can be reproduced and confirmed. Of course, the order of switching the above-described selection / reproduction edit areas may be randomly performed.

Next, in a fifteenth step S15, it is determined whether or not the edited content is recorded. That is, the edit contents of each edit area are confirmed, and finally the edit contents to be recorded in the MD 1 are selected and recorded. If it is desired to cancel the edit record, the process proceeds to the 16th step S16 to operate the edit cancel key 17e to cancel the edit record.

When the edit contents are recorded in the fifteenth step S15, the recording target is selected from the final table of contents information stored in the first to nth edit storage areas 9B to 9N in the seventeenth step S17. Once, the table of contents information storage area 9
Stored in A.

That is, after the edit area to be recorded is selected from the first to nth edit storage areas 9B to 9N as in the 17th step S17, the table of contents information selected in the 18th step S18 is stored in the semiconductor memory. 9 table of contents information storage area 9
After being stored in A, the UTOC of the disc 1 is based on the edited table of contents information stored in the table of contents information storage area 9A.
It is designed to write in the area.

When an audio signal is recorded and edited by using the above-described information recording / reproducing apparatus and information recording / reproducing method, for example, in consideration of alignment when the audio signal is spliced, the splicing is performed once. It is difficult to fit the parts together, and it is also difficult to obtain the best pattern in one go. Therefore, actually, it is possible to store the edited content data patterns, which have been aligned at several kinds of timings, in the first to nth editing storage areas, reproduce them, and compare them with each other to select the best one. By applying it in some cases, editing operability is significantly improved.

In the above embodiment, the original table-of-contents information is stored in all of the plurality of editing storage areas 9B to 9N during the editing operation, but the original table of contents is stored only in one specific editing storage area and is copied. Obviously, the information may be copied from the table of contents information storage area.
Further, it is needless to say that the table-of-contents information can be exchanged between the first to nth edit storage areas sequentially or randomly.

According to the information recording / reproducing apparatus and the information recording / reproducing method of the present invention, it is different in the semiconductor memory based on the original table of contents information stored in the table of contents information storage area of the semiconductor memory from the table of contents information area of the disc. Record / select / edit editing work patterns in parallel in multiple editing storage areas
What is reproducible is obtained, and the editing content in which the common editing pattern is stored can be easily copied to another editing storage area.

Further, since the table of contents information storage area which cannot be erased / edited is provided in the semiconductor memory until the end of editing so as to store the original table of contents information, the original table of contents information before cancellation or before editing can be stored. There are many effects such that the switching reproduction can be performed in the semiconductor memory without reading the table of contents information of the disc.

[0058]

According to the information recording / reproducing apparatus and the information recording / reproducing method of the present invention, a plurality of editing operations can be executed in parallel in the storage means such as a semiconductor memory. Also, by playing back the edited contents, what can be confirmed in the semiconductor memory before the disc recording is obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an embodiment of an information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a memory map of storage means used in the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a memory map of storage means used in a conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Mini Disc (MD) 9 Semiconductor Memory (Storage Means) 9A Contents Information Storage Area 9B-9N First to Nth Editing Storage Areas 10 CPU (Control Means) 17 Operation Unit (Input Device) 17a Edit Key

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. The index information of a recording medium on which the reproduction information and the index information are recorded is read out, and the reproduction / recording / editing of the information is controlled based on the index information stored in the storage means. In an information recording / reproducing apparatus, at least one edit capable of copying the index information storage area for storing the index information recorded on the recording medium at the time of editing the information and the index information data stored in the index information storage area The storage means having a storage area, and exchange and selection of storage data between the table of contents information storage area and the editing storage area, or between a plurality of editing storage areas, and the table of contents information data stored in the table of contents information storage area Is equipped with a control means for controlling so as not to be erased until the table of contents information of the recording medium is rewritten after the editing is completed. An information recording / reproducing apparatus characterized in that editing is performed based on the table-of-contents information data of at least one editing storage area. 2. All or part of edited table-of-contents information data stored in at least one editing storage area of said storage means and all table-of-contents information stored in said table-of-contents information storage area are exchanged, 2. An information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording / reproducing in the storage means and the selection / reproduction from the storage means are performed. 3. The edit data stored in a plurality of edit storage areas of the storage means and the common data at the time of editing the table of contents information stored in the table of contents information storage area can be mutually copied. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The information recording / reproducing according to claim 1, wherein a timing signal for connection at the time of editing is recorded in at least one edit storage area of the storage means. apparatus. 5. Information adapted to read out the table of contents information of a recording medium on which the reproduction information and the table of contents information are recorded, and to control reproduction / recording / editing of the information based on the table of contents information stored in the storage means. In the recording / reproducing method, the table-of-contents information stored in the storage means is copied into at least two or more editing storage areas, and different table-of-contents information data that has been edited is recorded / selected / reproduced in parallel. Information recording / playback method. 6. A method for canceling editing or performing a switching operation before editing based on the table-of-contents information of the storage means storing the table-of-contents information recorded on the recording medium and the editing data stored in at least one editing storage area. The information recording / reproducing method according to claim 5, wherein